Comparative genomic hybridization reveals population-based genetic alterations in hepatoblastomas

Hepatoblastoma is a malignant paediatric liver tumour. in order to approach the genetic background of this malignancy we have screened a panel of eigh teen cases from Europe and Japan for chromosomal imbalances using comparati ve genomic hybridization (CGH). The most frequent losses included chromosom al regions 13q21-q22 (28%) and 9p22-pter (22%), while the most frequent gai ns occurred on 2q23-q24 (33%), 20q (28%) and 1q24-q25 (28%), A significant difference in CGH alterations between the tumours from patients of Caucasia n and Japanese was revealed where toss of 13q was found only in the Japanes e samples. In conclusion, the findings indicate several candidate regions f or suppressor genes and oncogenes potentially involved in the hepatoblastom as of different ethnic origin, (C) 2000 Cancer Research Campaign.